16 Year-Old Veronika Lyckkovska Is Ukraine’s Youngest Certified Hafidhah

On Friday, 10 Ramadan (25 May) Kyiv Islamic Cultural Centre greeted yet another Hafidhah, who completed reciting the Holy Book for her hafth Bin Asim degree: Ms.Veronika Lychkovska, a student of Gymnasium “Our Future”, is now a certified Hafidhah.

The event itself began with the young lady’s recitation of her final Surahs under the supervision of Sheikh Haydar Al-Hajj, in the presence of Deputy Head of Association “Alraid” Ismail Kady, her proud Father Henadii Lychkovskyi, her other family members, girlfriends from school and the guests of the ICC.

She started learning the Holy Book since she was 6, yet didn’t quite understand the meaning of it in the beginning. As she recalls with a smile, she remembered her first surahs just as she would learn some rhymes for school in terms of her home assignment in literature. The understanding of importance of Qur’an in her life came years later, and from that time on, she’s been trying even harder, remembering the text sequentially, juz by juz.

According to Mufti of RAMU “Umma” Said Ismagilov, this event has a great importance for both the girl and her family, and the whole Ukrainian Muslim community. “After the communists destroyed Islam and Muslims in Ukraine, all the religious life was forced to go underground, up to Ukraine's Independence. Centuries-old tradition of training the Hafidhs broke. After the revival of Ukrainian Muslims religious life, men and boys were the first ones to become Hafidh again, until one woman completed her study several years ago. And now we have a teenage Hafidhah as well.”

Indeed, in March 2015 Samia Arada was the first woman to become a Hafidhah in Ukraine, and was joined by Vira Fryndak, the first Hafidhah of Ukrainian ethnic origin, later that month. About a dozen women completed their study of the Holy book since then, and now their team is joined by a very young lady of Ukrainian ethnic origin.